Sunday, February 28, 2010

A few new stamps from Hero Arts... As soon as I saw pictures of the Hydrangea stamp I knew

it was on my list to buy. I inked it up yesterday around 4 times and kept playing with it.. I created this card first... and then this ATC next. I still have a few more stamped images of this that will surface later. The library check out slip is from a download found here.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

When I saw the colors for this weeks play date cafe challenge, I knew I wanted to play along. The turquoise with the black and white is such a striking color combination it immediately inspired me to pull out my glimmer mists. I have several pretty glimmer mist colors in teal.

I went searching through my stamps for something to play with and found this collage stamp by Hero Arts (Butterfly with Ferns). I happen to have the coordinating fern stamp as well and used that in the background.

The verse is from The Stamp Barn. I was going to emboss using white embossing powder on the background but this morning I was inspired to pull out my bleach gel pen and ink up the stamp with the bleach. I love the effect of the bleach on the glimmer mist background. The bleach stamping and painting pulls the glimmer mist out completely. The stamping always leaves a lovely soft blurry edged effect.

I have a little sneak peak of my Easter projects only because I had so much fun creating them.

Love this basket stamp from Memory Box!

Well... I have a few chores to do.. and I want to create a few more cards for Hero Arts. They are holding a give away over on the Flickr group for Hero Arts. All you have to do is create a card with a Hero Arts stamp and post it with a tag of "30grand". This will get you entered into a drawing for some of the new wood stamps.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Tag Tuesday challenge this week is Shamrocks! I have 2 shamrock stamps and thought I would use my Memory Box stamp. It has a large shamrock and a small shamrock on the same stamp.

I also used my new Crushed Olive Distress ink. This is one of my favorites from the new colors. The background is from a bingo card which I photo copied using the black setting on my copier. (Guess my ink is gone again). The gray worked well as a background color, so a happy error.

The orange ink is Versafine Habenero and the lace trim is a Stampers Anonymous stamp and it is embossed using Zing embossing powder.

I am working on a fun project for the Outside the Box blog. It involves a grapevine wreath basket stamp.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Oops... I missed our nephew's birthday... He turned 8 last Wednesday. If it had been an adult birthday, I have tons of cards that I keep on hand. But children's cards are so much harder for me to create and I tend to make them as I need them. I quickly made this card. I had an idea of what I wanted to do but wasn't too pleased with the end result.

But the card had to go out so I finished it up and it will go in the mail today. I bought this big cupcake stamp with the intent to use it for another birthday card I have to create in March. The candle is part of a set of thickers I have and I was thinking of the big number candles you can put on your cake.

All the stamps are Hero Arts. The inks are Memento Dandelion and Pear Tart.

The second card is for our niece who has a birthday this week too. She is going to be thirteen. Another age where you wonder what would they like on their cards. I verified with my 12 going on 13 year old whether this was okay.

I never know what to do with the chandelier stamps and thought I would use it with black glitter. I hope she enjoys this.

All the stamps are Hero Arts and the background is lavender fields glimmer mist. The black embossing powder with glitter is Zing. I was a little disappointed in the effect of the black glitter it wasn't very glittery. More of a dark black with an occasional sparkle.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Do you ever get done with a card and decide... Nope not what I wanted to do and tear it apart? That is what I did here... I loved my main image and was trying how to put it onto a card.

I decided to try a new ribbon technique and overlap the main image. Finished it took a picture and decided that I liked the ribbon and the sentiment but not with my main image. So I took it apart. Saved the bottom half of the card for future use and put the main image on a new card base.

Oh the magic of on-line. Makes it look like I ended up with two cards.

The stamps are all Hero Arts. I just received this doily stamp and and wanted to play with it so I had fun stamping it several times in several colors before I decided to overlay the flowers and add the background script. The background script is partially embossed in spots to give it the brown mixed with the gold color.

Monday, February 22, 2010

I wanted to share what it looks like outside and took some of the pictures of our backyard and the gorgeous snow covering everything. Of course Emma had to come along with me to explore and eat the snow. I called her name so she would stop and look at me. I think I am getting attitude from the dog "What do you want now?"

This is the back corner of our lot... What you don't see is the busy interstate road running behind it. We get a lot of noise from the road which this picture doesn't reflect at all. :)

Just some close up of my butterfly bush in the snow. The fence is behind it and it even has snow on each piece of the wire. (We have to have the wire fence in addition to the wood fence because the owners behind us have beautiful horses)

Here is what we get to see off our back porch. The best part is we don't have to do the work! But we get to enjoy the view and the smells. :)

The horse is contemplating coming to see if I have something for him. Which I didn't so it was good he decided not to come over.

These little flowers are by our pool waiting for the warmer weather to re-grow.

I don't know which flowers these are but they very invasive and have covered along the entire side of the house. Gorgeous in snow and pretty in summer as they are yellow.

And this is in a rock garden out front and it is a perennial grass that I love. I leave it up until the spring and then cut it down as it is so pretty in winter. Plus the critters like to use this as a nest year round.

These colors were fun to play with because there were only the 3 of them. They also are really strong colors and love how they work together. I apologize because all my brown paper is a dark chocolate color and it always photographs black.

I just received the ledger cling stamp from Hero Arts and wanted to use it on a card, so I decided to pair it with the silhoutte burst flower. The butterflies are punches.You can't see it but the swirl in the background is embossed using an iridescent embossing powder to try to give it a little sparkle.

Products:

Hero Arts - Cling Ledger

Hero Arts - Cling - Flourishes

Hero Arts - Cling - Friends

Hero Arts - Silhouette Burst

Hero Arts - Silhouette Spray

Versafine - Vintage Sepia, Crimson Red

Versamark Watermark

Iridescent Embossing Powder

Marvy Uchida Butterfly Punches

Twine, Buttons, Pearls

We didn't get all the snow that was forecasted. But we still have snow and the landscape is gorgeous. I am going to go out later to take a few pictures and I will try to share a few.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

This was my card I sent off to my friend Dawn for the card exchange. Deborah provides three challenges one is color, another sketch and last a theme.

The colors were various shades of green and purple. I immediately thought of my Flourishes violets stamp set. This is what I created with that in mind.

These were colored using my watercolor pencils and accented with stickles. The centers of the flowers are accented with these glittery pearls. I have had them for awhile but didn't have anywhere to use them. After I added the stickles they fit right in. :)

The background is a sizzix embossing folder. The die cuts are both nestabilities.

I laid the die cut over the image after I had stamped and colored and sponged around the frame to create the white border.

The white frame on the large die cut was traced around the outside of the die and hand cut.

I hope you have a lovely day. (Forecast here is for about 6 - 10 more inches of snow by end of tomorrow.) I guess that is why I keep creating spring flower cards. Trying to inspire mother nature to give up on the snow and start moving towards spring.

Friday, February 19, 2010

I have been very busy with a couple different things... Getting ready for classes, family, and work. The worst part is I have a bunch of new stamps and they are piled up on my desk waiting for some love and I have no time to give it to them.

Here is something I put together yesterday and thought I would post up really quick. I am going to be teaching tomorrow and then teaching Sunday school on Sunday. So first chance to play probably won't be until then. Boo Hoo... 2 Peas stamping forum is hosting Winterfest from tomorrow until the 28th. If you get a chance, go play in some of the fun challenges!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Around my house there are a few of us, myself included who love to get the mail. Well yesterday I had to run out to the grocery store at the end of the day and the mail never showed up before I had to leave.

When I get home we unload groceries and my two oldest decide to go out and enjoy the snow with our puppy. My husband said "I can't believe you didn't get the mail today". "Of all days you should have gotten the mail" Now my ears perk up and I am wondering what is going on. Turns out I received 4 packages and my kids had hidden them. So now I had to wait until they came in to try to find them.

You get to share in the beautiful cards I received yesterday...

First up I am participating in Deborah's Card Share which she hosts once a month. (You need to stop over at her blog because she is tremendously funny and really talented! She is always hosting fun events) I was lucky enough to have Marilyn V get my name... Take a look at the beautiful cards she sent me...

First there is this adorable frog wth shamrock background paper. It is so cute and adorable.

And that wasn't even the card... This was her card... I had to take the picture on an angle so you could see inside to see that she put coordinating paper and doily edge on the indside too! This is so beautiful! (She also sent me some goodies inside the package too!)

Then on top of that package... I received a package from Kiara which was totally unexpected. Look at this gorgeous card!

She too included a RAK for me! Thanks Kiara!

If that wasn't enough Alice sent me a package too and these beautiful cards were in there. This card is so delicious in it springy colors. I love these bright colors the owls are adorable and the coloring fantastic.

When Alice offered to send me a card I asked if she would mind sending me one of her little elf cards she colored around Christmas. I was so lucky she had one left that she could share with me. I think this is the cutest card and loved that I got to see the coloring up close and in real life!

Now how about that... It was like having my half birthday! What a great day of surprises. And my fourth package was a new release from Memory Box that I didn't even know was on it's way to me and the stamps are lovely! I have all these new stamps now and no time to play just yet.

Thanks for stopping by... I hope you enjoyed my mail as much as I did in receiving it.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day to you and your special ones! I don't have any valentines' cards left to share. :) Instead I have still been playing with the green and gold color combination. I made these shamrocks which were very fun as they were kissed using two different stamps. The Hero Arts Artistic Windows and the Memory Box Shamrock. I still have to create two st. patty's day birthday cards for my brother and sister in law and to top that off they are turning 50 this year.

So the twist is to incorporate all three concepts into one card. We will see if I can come up with anything fun.

I inked up the shamrock stamp with the versafine olympia green and then placed that stamp face up and laid the artistic window ontop of it and removed some of the color. I then ended up stamping both stamps on white cardstock. Both stamped beautifully. I only used the green ones an saved the other ones for another time. As you can see I repeated that a fewt times more. The background is the wood grain stamp from Hero Arts stamped using the Versafine Toffe. I then created a little wreath and added some twine and buttons.

The second card was inspired by the October Afternoon Farm Fresh Paper. It has a lot of fun patterns in the pack. This one reminded me of the Toffee color I have been using alot lately so I paired it up and stamped some flowers on the pattern paper.

I cut the flowers out and created my stem from the flourish ontop of the wood grain stamp.

Very simple card. Both are for the Hero Arts Challenge this month. St. Patricks Day and Flowers.

Well I hope you have a lovely valentine's day and that it is special!

I wanted to make a correction to my post yesterday, several of you asked about the butter cream embossing powder. Well... I was going to use my Zing Cream EB powder but decided to you my Ranger Adirondack Butterscotch embossing powder on the flowers on my card. Hence the Butter Cream. :O Ohh... Sorry about the confusion. Now I am doing it with my embossing powders. Used to be just the kids I am calling by each others names.

Friday, February 12, 2010

I have to share what was in my mail box today when I went out to get the mail. One of the perks of making cards is to receive cards from other friends. I received TWO envelopes from Lin! Lin is the Queen of hearts.. and not in the Alice in Wonderland kind! She is the sweetest person and not only that, she is extremely talented. She is so good at using hearts and flowers in her cards and I was thrilled to get both kind from her today.

Look what she sent me two ATC's which are both wonderful and lovely!

Love the watermark background behind the flowers in that cute pot and the butterfly with the hearts flourishes is stunning!

And a separate envelope with a valentine card. Look at her sentiment so appropriate! I couldn't adjust the whiteness on this because it made the pink too bright and this is the most soft and pretty card IRL. My photo did not do it justice.

and if that wasn't enough she sent me this gorgeous card. This was the card she made for all the new Hostesses over at the Hero Arts Flickr group and I was lucky enough to receive it from her.

Thank you Lin!

Now on to a share of something I worked on tonight. I have been wanting to play along in the Hero Arts challenge this month again. I haven't had the inspiration. Finally I had a break through this evening... I have had this piece sitting on my desk for more than week waiting for a card to put it on.

The background is all chocolate brown and the embossing is a combination of golds and butter cream. Love both embossing powders.

The butterfly is embossed on acetate with gold embossing powder and I love how it turned out. (Translate that to mean you probably will see this happening again!)

By the way my daughter is watching me type this up and she said my card was ugly. :) LOL!

Of course she loved what Lin created and helped come up with the descriptions.

Well off to watch Ice Age 3 with my dearest daughter.

Tanya wanted to leave a comment too: "I like my mom's butterflies and background, I just didn't like the dandelion on the bottom. Lin's cards were very good."

Thursday, February 11, 2010

I like to switch up my style sometimes and do something more clean. (Very hard for me to keep it simple) But I was really pleased with the way this turned out of course with the embellishment I chose I had my big design element.

I have the fantastic Verses Stamp which is the poem "How do I love Thee?" by Elizabeth Barret Browning. I knew I wanted to use it on this card and when I was rummaging through my odds and ends drawer of embellishments I found these earrings which I had snuck out of the dress up box. These were hand me downs from Great grandmas junk jewelry box and are clip ons. So when the kids would try to wear them they really hurt the ears! (Didn't stop them from trying to wear them tho!)

Very simple card but I liked how the earring provided such a beautiful accent.

In continuing my cards for my class I created a few more using different folding techniques. This one uses the stair step fold. I love this fold especially to create different layers.I left the oval blank for the class to select whatever sentiment they wanted.

I also wanted to use the same folding technique used on Lin's card. So I sized it down and used two Memory Box cards to create this:

When opened it looks like this:

I also have a hidden reason for making all these folded cards. I am going to host a challenge during the 2 Peas Winterfest which is happening at the end of February. These are going to be the samples for my challenge.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

I love new stamps! There is something fun about inking up brand new stamps or even just thinking of how you are going to use them.

I am working on cards for my next Memory Box class. I am going to do a class using different folding techniques. I have seen so many pretty easel cards lately that I was inspired to create one as well.

Monday, February 8, 2010

My son had a volleyball tournament this past weekend and I had a little down time between his matches. (They lost most of their games but played well)

I had stamped a bunch of little girls to practice coloring with my copics. When I was finished with the coloring I decided to create cards from the girls that I thought turned out enough to put on a card. :)

Here is my series of girl cards. I am going to send them off to the Cards for Kids Drive that Jennifer McGuire is hosting. (Except the first one as my DD saw the little girl before I placed her on a card and asked to have her. I made the first card for Tanya.

I was struggling to do something different and had an idea to put her on a swing.I made one blond girl and probably could have done a little more blending on her hair.

Last but not least a sponged background to blend the purple and yellow combo.

Hope you enjoyed my ensemble of girls. The stamps are all Hero Arts and the little girl is from the Hero Arts Sparkle Design You're the Best. The pattern paper is Basic Grey and the cardstock Bazzill.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The Hero Arts Blog Challenge this month is either flowers or St. Patricks Day. The flowers is pretty easy but the St. Patricks Day takes a little more thought as there are no St. Patty's day stamps from HA other than the sentiment. Here is my take on that part of the challenge:

I used the heart flourish stamp with green ink to simulate the clover feel. Having said all of that about trying to come up with a St. Patty's Day card take a look at Heather Maria's card here. It is gorgeous and she used poetry about Ireland in her card.

Makes me want to go back to the inking board and try again. Unfortunately... Going to be a busy day with a superbowl party, church and picking up and dropping off kids. Have a lovely day and stay dry and warm if you are in the midst of the snow!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Cathy at the Moxie Fab World had issued a Monday Moxie Fab Challenge to create a card in the style of Anne Taintor. The challenge was to create a card with a sassy saying to go with the vintage picture. I hunted down some advertising pictures from post cards and used them to create three cards. I apologize up front for some of the humor. It took me much longer to come up with something for the sayings than to create the cards.

The first card was from a postcard and has part of the sentiment on the front:

and the rest on the inside: (I know I don't look this good when I go grocery shopping!)

The next one I tried for a long time to come up with a different expression but when my father laughed at what I had put, I figured it wasn't too bad. Although he did say it depended on who I was sending it to.

I have a few friends who go fishing with us and I think will appreciate this, as we have all had a few fishing stories...

The last one took the longest to come up with a saying and we all had different ideas and I ended up with this:

Well this was definitely a challenge and something very different for me...

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Louise's challenge this week is a tag with a touch of red. I am feeling a little lacking in creativity. I created two tags and felt like they were something I had done before. So I apologize if they look familiar.

Here is the first tag. I loved the touches of the white gel pen on this.

The fringe is some really fun crepe paper ribbon that Louise sent me as a RAK. Thanks Louise!

The second one shows how bad my sewing skills really are as that is faux sewing and it reflects how my real sewing looks, when I do sew! :)

I hope you are having a lovely week. I am excited as my girlfriend Lisa was at CHA and we will be getting together tomorrow and I can chat with her about her adventures.

I have a few cards I created for the Taintor challenge at the Moxie Fab challenge that I hope to share sometime this week still.